Monday, January 16, 2006

I had two Estonian girlfriends over for a leisurely dinner on Saturday night, where we compared each others' Christmas holiday notes and plans for the new year. We had a Georgian chicken stew - chakhohbili - for the main course, and puff pastry tarts with figs and brown sugar mascarpone for the dessert. We drank Italian white wine and copious amounts of water infused with cucumber & lime slices.

I came across this simple yet delicious dessert in a donna hay magazine (Issue 20, Autumn 2005). I didn't change anything about it – though I did forget to dab the figs with butter before baking, and I'll do that next time as well.

Everything looks very lush, treating yourself like that DAILY? Why, I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, or ever, it' s so unimpressive! Just wandering how you manage to keep your figure. Must have a metabolism to die for. gelous....

Wow! I like it when a minimum of effort gets such a gorgeous result! Short report: I got Nigella´s "Feast" yesterday and absolutely love it. Love it! I cannot understand I have not got one of her books before. But the thing is I didn´t like her TV show and then I didn´t care about her books either. What a writer she is! And wonderful recipes and photos. I want to cook everything, even soup of yellow peas which I never liked...

Clare & Bea & Cindy - thank you. I made "mini" versions this Tuesday, and these were even cuter:)

Kalyn - I'll post the Georgian Chicken Stew recipe soon, and will submit it for the Weekend Herb Blogging as well.

Roxie - well, I deserve to be treated daily, no? That's not true, I have plenty of non-memorable eating days. Re: the figure & metabolism - I guess I'm reasonably lucky. Until I was 20, I could eat anything (incl. copious amounts of chocolate) and still be just below 50kg at 1,70m - without going to the gym. Decade later, this is sadly no longer a case:)

Clivia - exactly. I should start giving stars for little effort/great result. I'm glad to hear you like the "Feast" - looking forward to reading how you get on with it!

Paz - I will post a picture of mini tarts soon!

Sha - if I'd try to eat only following the seasons here in Scotland, I'd never eat figs:( And somehow the ones available here at the moment are incredibly aromatic, juicy and flavoursome. My Italian guest the other day (when I made mini versions) was impressed with the figs. But otherwise I totally agree with you. I'll be hopefully spending about 2 weeks in Greece this June, and I'm looking forward to eating the fruits that are in season then..

Ilva - I can always remind you by sending you a link to this post when I hear that figs are in season in Italy:)